[OSM-talk] Sourcing street names - what's the policy, and why?

[morb.gis at beagle.com.au]

Quoting Anthony <osm at inbox.org>:

> What would Wikinews be like if they had a rule which said "don't copy from
> other news articles",

Well that's different:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s103b.html

---
COPYRIGHT ACT 1968 - SECT 103B
Fair dealing for purpose of reporting news

(1)  A fair dealing with an audio‑visual item does not constitute an
infringement of the copyright in the item or in any work or other
audio‑visual item included in the item if:

(a)  it is for the purpose of, or is associated with, the reporting of news in a
newspaper, magazine or similar periodical and a sufficient acknowledgement of
the first‑mentioned audio‑visual item is made; or

(b)  it is for the purpose of, or is associated with, the reporting of news by
means of a communication or in a cinematograph film.
---


> You have to be able to "copy facts" from time to time.

Well, there's nothing more factual than the signage on-site.  I assume this is
what you meant by what you "have" to?

> And that means you have to use your own judgment as to what constitutes a
> copyright infringement and what constitutes legitimate research.

The OpenStreetMap policy is fairly clearly expressed, however.  I take it to
mean that OSM do not want to deal with cases where contributors' own judgments
are faulty.  And the other problem is, it's not the contributors' own
*judgments* that matter, anyway.


Brendan